Guest Post: Coconut Sugar 101 by Naturally Sweet Recipes
The lovely sisters who blog at Naturally Sweet Recipes were pretty much the first bloggers I found who share my no-refined-sugar mentality. They bake their recipes with ALL natural sweeteners that are low on the glycemic index, like coconut sugar (which I learned about from them!), maple syrup, agave nectar, stevia and more.
I asked the sisters if one of them would mind stepping in to guest post while I’m away and share some information on one of our favourite sweeteners. The youngest sister, Chelsea, obliged and has provided a great post with all you need to know about coconut sugar and some fabulous recipes to try out. I’m sure you won’t mind taste testing these beauties!
Anna xx
Hi Guiltless Life readers!
This is Chelsea from Naturally Sweet Recipes. I blog with my two sisters, Holly and Annie. I am the youngest sister and currently a senior in high school.
I love blogging about favorite natural foods and recipes and I am very excited share about what I love by guest posting for Anna!
At Naturally Sweet Recipes, we try making traditional and popular treats more healthy by using natural ingredients and sweeteners. Because we don’t use sugar, many people often ask us “So… What do you eat?”
There are many different alternatives to regular sugar. Today, I wanted to share with you a little about one of our favorites – coconut sugar!
I really love this natural sugar. It gives great flavor and helps contribute to an amazing, rich texture. It has really become a staple in our homes because of its great taste, caramelizes very well and can be used in so many ways. It’s also simple to use. If a recipe calls for one cup of sugar, you use equal measurements – so one cup of coconut sugar. How easy is that?!
Coconut sugar is such an awesome sweetener, it has even been raved about by Doctor Oz. Doctor Oz says it best here.
And to give you more information on this sugar, coconut sugar can actually be found by different names. It is popularly called coconut palm sugar by many US companies. But there is really coconut sugar and palm sugar. In Asia, where these sweeteners are widely used, they come in different forms and are used in slightly different ways. Both sugars have low glycemic indexes and are rich in many nutrients and vitamins. Whichever one you use, try to buy the best quality you can find. Like anything, not all brands and products are created equal.
One of our favorite brands and one that Annie buys regularly is Big Tree Farms. This company has had great reviews and products.
Coconut sugar really is an easy alternative and much healthier that regular white sugar. And in our opinion, tastier too! To give you an even more tempting invitation to try this delicious sweetener, we’d like to share a few of our favorite recipes with you. All these
recipes are sweetened only with the awesome ingredient of coconut sugar.
These are our go-to waffles when we want a yummy breakfast, brunch, or even dinner! They are light, fluffy and filling. And they have great flavor thanks to the cinnamon and coconut sugar.
These cupcakes are so rich and decadent, you’d never know they are refined sugar free! Complete with super fudgy chocolate buttercream, they are the perfect celebratory treat!
Chocolate chips cookies have got to be the most FABULOUS late night treat. The coconut sugar in this recipe replaces the brown sugar to create a rich, chewy and healthy cookie!
Hope these give you some sweet incentives to try this great natural sweetener!
March 21, 2012
Margherita
Those look amazing: I’m definitely going to try coconut sugar!
March 21, 2012
Anna @ The Guiltless Life
Do and then share all your delicious recipes with me! hehe
March 21, 2012
Kelli H (Made in Sonoma)
I definitely need to look for it.
March 21, 2012
Anna @ The Guiltless Life
It should be in most major supermarkets’ natural aisle. It sometimes is called palm sugar, as Chelsea mentioned. So good!
March 21, 2012
andrea drugay
Thanks for this post! I’ve just started experimenting baking with coconut sugar and have had excellent results. Will be checking out Naturally Sweet! 🙂
March 21, 2012
Anna @ The Guiltless Life
Definitely do, they have some great recipes! In my opinion coconut sugar make cookies like no other natural sweetener does! So good!
March 21, 2012
Jentry Nielsen
I’ve never tried coconut sugar before, but if Dr. Oz approves I’m in! ha He is my favorite! haha
Can’t wait to try some of these out!
March 21, 2012
Anna @ The Guiltless Life
Haha Dr. Oz is the final word, right?? I love coconut sugar, so happy these girls turned me onto it!
March 21, 2012
Janice Hernandez
Is coconut sugar and Palm sugar the same thing? Can I find them in Walmart? XD I do have a whole foods store like 25 minutes from here but its expensive 🙁
March 22, 2012
Anna @ The Guiltless Life
Yes! It’s often called palm sugar or coconut palm sugar. I don’t know if I’ve seen it in Walmart but I’ve certainly seen it in every major supermarket – they definitely have it in Whole Foods but I don’t think it’s necessary to go and spend those prices or go all that way! Though I usually do find it’s about $6 a bag…I live in Vancouver though, where everything’s expensive 🙂
Edit: the girls at Naturally Sweet Recipes have just updated their sweetener list with definitions of coconut sugar and palm sugar – apparently they are different sweeteners after all! I have always found them to taste identical but you can check out their guide on their site (link in post above) for full details!
March 22, 2012
Kristine Fretwell (@BusyButHealthy)
Wow these all look fabulous!!
March 22, 2012
Anna @ The Guiltless Life
I know I was drooling! 🙂
June 26, 2012
Rachel Sincock
Lovely to fine young women as passionate about these healthier sugars as I, and having the energy into promoting them.
I don’t have cane sugar in the house, as I a m very sensitive to it & notice my chidren’s rection to it.
I don’t get much time to bake like I used to but I gradually try out old favorates with healthier options.
We have a manderin tree & my eight year o
June 26, 2012
Rachel Sincock
I don’t know if you recieved the first half of this comment, but I need to know if I can make jam with coconut sugar?
Regards
Rachel
June 26, 2012
Anna @ The Guiltless Life
Hi Rachel! Thanks for your comment – we got the first half through :). I don’t know if the girls at Naturally Sweet Recipes will have anything different to say, but for me I think you can do jam with coconut sugar. I think it is better done with a liquid natural sweetener like agave, honey, brown rice syrup or maple syrup, but if you want to use coconut sugar there are some good recipes out there. The Whole Life Nutrition blog is a great one for finding these recipes – they published a honey-sweetened one (you can sub in another liquid sweetener if you don’t use honey) and she says she tried a vanilla plum jam using coconut sugar also so you could ask her about that!
http://www.nourishingmeals.com/2010/07/how-to-make-honey-sweetened-jam.html